Fall-Winter 2012 Swine - AAG Shur-Gain Ontario

Fall/Winter 2012
swine
What will improve
your sows’
profitability?
Hint: Every detail counts!
(See inside for answer)
Jeff MacDougald
Swine Business Manager
Shur-Gain Central
AT A GL ANCE • FALL/WINTE
2
R 201
EDITORIAL
Flexibility & Change
– it is the extent to which
“aFlexibility
person can cope with changes
in circumstances and think
about problems and tasks in novel,
creative ways.
”
I could touch on the commodity markets - corn, soybean
meal, pork, fuel, topics of which Shur-Gain and I have no
impact, my preference: things we can help you control.
Shur-Gain’s success and sustainability is directly linked to the
sustainability and future of our pork producing customers. Without
livestock to feed, there is little need for animal nutrition companies. Our
goal is to continue to bring novel and creative solutions to current
market challenges. Since we are a full compliment nutrition company,
we have the flexibility to work with our customers, supplying everything
from low inclusion premix to complete feeds, and the expertise in
ingredient utilization to bring novel and creative solutions to every point
in between. Our Swine Nutrition Advisors are trained on all facets of
production including bio-security, record analysis, management and
growth modeling; this encourages them to think outside the box to
discover timely and economical solutions for our customers.
High costs of production, health challenges and abundant opportunities
for land based farms to sell their corn have led many producers to look
at exiting the swine business.
the understanding that swine diets are based on specific requirements
for nutrients such as energy and amino acids and not individual
ingredients such as Corn and Soybean meal. From this understanding,
our customers trust that we are supplying the same or more balanced
nutrition for their pigs, at the same or lower cost, and allowing flexibility
to profit from the sale of a portion of their crop.
As you have read in past Swine @ a Glance editions, our R&D is always
focused on bringing the highest value to our customers at the lowest
cost. Our recent improvements to the Impact 4e complete feed and
Ultimix 4e on-farm mix starter programs actually led to a $0.55 per pig
cost reduction in the nursery barn. The continued use of Watson2.0®
allows our customers to optimize for profit potential based on phase
changes, allowance of different ingredients and verified target shipping
weights with changing market and feed prices. Up next read about the
coming launch of the Mission sow feeding program, this is the culmination
of our three year Best Practices in Sows research project which builds
off the success of our current MVP program and Element 24.
Thank you for taking the time to read this issue of Swine @ a Glance,
I hope you identify with our message of flexibility and change.
Through our adherence to flexibility and change we have worked with
many of our customers to offset a portion of their corn needs on farm,
through the use of different commodity blends, large inclusion
supplements and complete feeds. Part of this success has come from
YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS? PLEASE CONTACT:
Mark Bodenham, Shur-Gain, 519 349-3167; mark.bodenham@nutreco.ca
THE
ARCH WITHIN YOUR REACH
F RESE
O
R
E
POW
Michel Vignola, agronome, M.Sc.
Director – Swine Technology Application
Nutreco Canada Agresearch
Drew Woods
Swine Nutritionist
Shur-Gain Central
TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Question:
What will improve your sows’
profitability?
As you know, the success of your swine business depends on the
summation of numerous factors and paying attention to the
details. When it comes to nutrition and feeding of breeding herds,
it is the same story. Highly prolific female lines are pushing
production standards higher and constantly bring new
challenges to sow longevity and the quality of piglets at birth and
weaning. All these elements have been considered in the
development of the new Shur-Gain/Landmark sow feeding
program. Every detail counts in order to succeed in our mission
of ensuring nutrition is not limiting your breeding herd’s
productivity while keeping cost of production as low as possible
and reducing any negative environmental impacts. We are
committed to our “mission” by helping you solve your problems
by looking at the issues from many different angles.
Energy, the most important and costly nutrient,
is better utilized by sows
Compared to growing pigs, sows have a greater digestive capacity.
They benefit from a larger intestinal tract, especially the colon, and
therefore have a greater capacity for fermentation. Sows are able to
utilize feed ingredients more efficiently than growing pigs and
particularly the dietary fibre fraction. Examples of these differences
in digestibility are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1. Nutrients digestibility (%) for sows vs growing pigs
Summary of 12 scientific publications and 180 diets
Organic matter
Crude fibre
Energy
Growing pigs
Dry sows
82.0
38.2
75.5
86.4
54.0
81.0
How can this improved digestibility capacity of the sow be utilized
to your advantage as well as the environment? Shur-Gain has
created a new energy metric in our formulation program called the
Effective Energy for sows. This energy value incorporates the
increased digestibility of the fibrous fraction of each ingredient. In
this system, proteins of animal origin as well as fats and oils which
actually do not contain plant fiber are unaffected. However, all plant
feedstuffs, and especially those high in fibre, have the greater
potential to provide available energy to the sow. In practice, this
new energy system for sows enables us to formulate sow diets at
a lower cost by giving greater nutritional value to high fibre
ingredients. With current feed prices this could translate in to
$1.45/sow/year saving on feed cost, a small detail that counts!
Dry sow requirements calculated with precision
Often overlooked if not neglected, is the management of dry sow
feeding and yet it represents about 70% of all the feed required by
a breeding herd and therefore most of the feed bill and the largest
environmental impact factor. Moreover, we know that underfeeding
and, even worse, overfeeding can have deleterious effects on the
subsequent reproductive cycles. With the goal of building precise
feeding allowance recommendation for dry sows, we have
developed a dry sow feeding model. This tool will help our Swine
Nutrition Advisors and Swine Nutritionist to formulate tailor made
dry sow feeding programs based on the following inputs:
• Live weight (actual or estimate) and back-fat depth at weaning
• Gestation weight gain and fat depth at farrowing (these targets
could be genetic line specific)
• Litter size and birth weight of piglets
• Dry sow housing (pens or crates)
• Room temperature
• The energy density of dry sow feed
• The feed management applied to your barn (reconditioning
period in early gestation and timing of increase feed allowance
at end of gestation)
This would appear to be a lot of detail but it is necessary if we want
to properly manage this vital stage of production with important
economic, environmental and technical impacts. This new approach
has taken a number of years to develop and validate but in
connection with our new Effective Energy system for sows we can
fulfil our mission to provide technologies that will work for you in
your commercial operation. For example, in the case of gestation
overfeeding which is a common problem, applying our program
leads to improved lactation feed intake and a reduced annual sow
SPECIAL LAUNCH:
New sow feeding program!
Answer:
feed cost. Sometimes, total feed required/sow/year is reduced by
40 kg. If underfeeding is the problem, then it is the quality of the
litter at weaning which can be improved as well as the body
condition of the sow. In some cases, we have observed an improved
weaning weight of 0.5 kg/piglet. These details count for the
profitability and sustainability of your swine business!
Lactation and its challenges
We also have looked at the best ways to fill the complex requirements
of lactating sows. We have updated and validated our nutrient
specifications including energy and amino-acid density of lactation
diets, and we have studied different lactation feeding curves. Our
lactation feeds are well balanced to maximize feed intake during
lactation and address production challenges of high prolificacy
sows. If intakes are low, it may be necessary to “Top-Dress”, ensuring
an adequate supply of essential nutrients during lactation (e.g amino
acids and functional nutrients). Based on our R&D trials we will be
introducing a new lactation sow top-dress, which could improve
wean-to-estrus interval and litter growth rate in cases where sow
lactation intakes are low.
Element24, still inside!
In early 2010, we introduced a new nutritional technology which
affects sow metabolism by improving glucose (main source of
energy) utilization. Element24 remains in our new program
because it is a detail that counts. A feeding program that supports
glucose utilization sustains sow productivity and also improves
sow longevity. (Lindemann, 2011). Remember, when adding
Element24 to the sow nutrition program we observed in 95% of
situations a saving of 0.53$ or more per piglet cost of production,
on average the saving was 1.51$/pig which is worthwhile.
And there is more...
Our innovation and sustainability efforts continue to thrive as we
search for alternative solutions to the problems pork producers face
every day. One of our key research areas is the improvement of
piglet viability by feeding functional nutrients at strategic phases
during the sow’s reproductive cycle. Currently there are a number
of studies underway on both sides of the Atlantic. So stay tuned!
We also are working on new ways to reduce the cost of production,
an important contributor to farming sustainability.
We’ll keep you informed as part of our goal to contribute to the
success of your swine business through our innovations. “Every
detail counts” and our new sow feeding program “Mission” is part
of the toolbox available to reach this goal.
To find out more, contact your Swine Nutrition Advisor or the Shur-Gain
Swine Centre of Excellence in your neighbourhood.
Drew Woods
Swine Nutritionist
Shur-Gain Central
TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Liquid Feeding
Is For Young Pigs Too
Liquid feeding of newly weaned pigs is not something that is commonly done in Ontario, but is a normal part
of pig rearing in the Netherlands. Part of the apprehension might lie in a lack of knowledge here in North
America related to liquid feeding weaner pigs and their special needs compared to 25 kg bodyweight or
larger starter-growers. I will attempt to address some of the most common concerns in this article.
1
What if my piglets don’t take to liquid? If you have seen in
the past that the weaners are not keen to start eating the
liquid feed as quickly as you would like, try dry feeding for
3-5 days. This will give them a chance to explore their new
environment and learn that the trough is the new source of
food. You should start sending at least one feeding a day into
the trough as soon as possible to make sure they do not
learn negative behaviours such as defecating in the trough.
Another thing to remember is to make sure your water to dry
matter ratio is properly set. Having a 3:1 ratio (22% DM
standardized at 88%) is quite common, but remember that
dry matter intake drives performance, therefore getting the
ration down as close to 2.5:1 or even 2:1 as your system can
handle is optimal.
4
How do I manage my sensors? The most important rule for
using sensors with your pigs is to not rely on the sensors to
manage the pigs. Complacency in the barn will almost
always lead to disappointing results. Instead, use the
sensors as the tool that they are to help guide you when
making decisions on feed allotment. One major mistake is
that sensors are often set too high with young pigs, creating
the opportunity for over feeding, spoiling, and wasting of
feed in the trough. This kind of disturbance can take days to
correct and ultimately delay growth. Try to inspect the
sensors daily and make sure that there is no buildup of old
feed covering them. Also be sure that they are in good
working order and not causing pigs to miss meals they
actually require.
2
How many times a day do I feed weaners? Newly weaned
pigs are coming from an environment where they are being
coaxed to eat 20 plus times a day by the sow. This does not,
however, mean that they need to be fed that many times
post weaning. A newly weaned pig can grow at the same rate
whether they are fed 4 times a day or 12. It is generally
recommended to feed the pigs as often as you can while still
leaving 6-8 hours over night for the pigs and the feeding
system to rest.
5
3
How much trough space is needed? On the sow piglets each
had access to a food source and eating was a family affair.
Ideally this should not change when they are weaned. Peter
Brooks has recommended that eating be treated as a group
activity which could help stimulate nervous eaters to come
to the trough with the rest of the pen. Our colleagues at
Hendrix UTD use the recommendation of 15 cm/pig as a
proper allotment of trough space. It should be noted that
even with short troughs (<15 cm per pig), that do not provide
enough space for all piglets to eat at once, growth
performance can still be maintained when exercising proper
trough management. Part of this management is the use of
sensor feeding.
Can my nursery pigs have co-products? Young pigs can
have co-products just like their older counterparts, but we
must be a bit more cautious with inclusion levels.
Ingredients such as liquid whey and liquid whey permeate
can easily be fed at levels up to 20% on a DM basis provided
the ration has been balanced to accommodate the extra
minerals (mostly salt) that are coming from the product.
More bitter ingredients like CDS and Corn Steep Water can
also be used, but the top level inclusions of 10-12.5% seen in
grow-finish pigs should be avoided in favour of a 5% max. It
is for this reason that producers should calculate the amount
of co-product that can realistically be fed to their pigs across
all stages of production and should avoid using liquids if they
will sit in the their tanks for more than 7-10 days. If the liquid
sits longer than 10 days in the tank, producers will run the
risk of yeast, mold and bacterial contamination as well as dry
matter losses of the liquid co-product.
Your local Shur-Gain representative will be more than
happy to help answer any liquid feeding questions
you may have and suggest a Shur-Gain product that
fits your needs.
AT A GLANCE • FALL/WINTER 2012
Please join me in welcoming Fraser Newbery to our Ontario
swine business.
Fraser Newbery
Fraser.newbery@Nutreco.ca
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To find out about our latest innovations,
contact your Shur-Gain Swine Nutrition Advisor
or your local Shur-Gain dealer.
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Fraser joined the Shur-Gain swine team on June 27th, 2011 in the role of Swine Feed
sales trainee. Fraser has had limited exposure to the Ontario Swine industry, but
is very eager to learn about this dynamic and changing business. Fraser is a
graduate of the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Science in Animal Biology
degree and will continue his education through Shur-Gain's Swine Nutrition Advisor
program. Once trained to utilize Shur-Gain's value adding tools, such as
Watson2.0®. and Compi-Porc, Fraser will be able to leverage his strong mathematic
and science background to help his customers realize the full benefits of choosing
Shur-Gain as their nutrition partner.
Copyright: Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, 2002. National Library of Canada, 2002.
WELCOME ABOARD!